Sona is a privacy-first, browser-based Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) with AI built in.
It’s a fork of the outstanding openDAW project, extended with:

• AI music generation (describe a vibe → get clips/tracks/instruments).
• Chat-to-mix: ask in plain English to change reverb, delay, EQ, tempo/speed, and more.
• Smart timing: set time signatures (e.g., 4/4) and quantize to 1/2, 1/4, 1/8...—just by asking.
• Education-friendly onboarding: contextual tips and explainers for every action.

No sign-ups. No tracking. No ads. Just music.

Type these into Sona’s AI panel (or say them, if voice is enabled):

• “Make a dreamy lo-fi beat at 82 BPM, vinyl hiss, soft keys.”
• “Set time signature to 4/4 and quantize the drum clip to 1/8.”
• “On Vocals, add a plate reverb: 35% wet, 1.6s decay.”
• “Give the snare a dotted 1/8 delay, low feedback.”
• “EQ the vocals: HPF at 90Hz, -2 dB at 3 kHz, Q 1.2.”
• “Speed up the whole song by 3%.”
• “Tighten the bass timing: quantize 1/4, light strength.”
• “Make the chorus feel wider and brighter; keep verse warm.”
• “Turn this loop into UK garage at 132 BPM with swung hats.”
• “Render a 30-second preview starting at bar 17.”

• AI where it helps: creation, mixing, and arrangement—without hiding the “how.”
• Radically simple: minimal UI, powerful under the hood.
• Privacy by default: local-first workflows wherever possible.

Sona is a fork of openDAW by André Michelle (GPLv3).
Huge respect to the original project and its philosophy of transparency and simplicity. This fork focuses on AI features and removes sections not applicable to this repo (community patrons, ambassador rosters, etc.).

Sona inherits openDAW’s “avoid framework sprawl” approach. Current studio deps:

• jszip — project bundle files
• markdown-it + markdown-it-table — help pages
• d3-force — graph debugging

Requirements

• Git
• mkcert — local HTTPS certs
• Node.js >= 23
• Sass (CLI/binaries available in env)
• TypeScript
• OpenSSL (for cert tooling; usually preinstalled on macOS/Linux)

Replace your-username/sona with your repo path.

git clone https://github.com/your-username/sona.git
cd sona

# First time only
npm run cert

# Optional: revert to clean slate
npm run clean

# Install deps
npm install

# Build
npm run build

# Dev servers
npm run dev:studio     # Studio UI
# or
npm run dev:headless   # Headless mode

# Open the studio (note the port for CORS samples)
# https://localhost:8080